Maryland Naval Air Station: Flights caused sonic boom

By Melissa Steele | Feb 06, 2014

The Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary's County, Md., has confirmed that flight training conducted off the Atlantic Coast caused the sonic boom heard Feb. 6 over eastern Sussex County and Maryland's Eastern Shore, according to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Earlier that day, Joseph Thomas of the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center said he contacted the Geological Survey in Delaware after people called in to report the boom around 1 p.m.

"The Geological Survey has no reading to show it was an earthquake," he said. "They said it was most likely an atmospheric or surface-based event such as a sonic boom."

The cause of the boom is unknown at the time, but fighter jets have been known to fly over the area, he said.

Thomas said his office received calls from people in Ocean City and Berlin, Md.; Millsboro and Bethany Beach with concerns about the boom.

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